[DAVID GAGNARD]

Dakota-Jam1775;

You both are 100% correct about octane. More is not always better. You should run the lowest that your engine will allow,anymore,you are just burning expensive gas for nothing.

In our dirt track car,the rules stated "pump gas only,no additives". The fuel of the top five cars in the nites feature event was tested for octane rating,93 being the max. allowed. We tested about five or six different "mixtures" of "stuff" till we found one that would pass the test the local track performed. Laquer thinner was one of the three or so additives you could get away with and was the least expensive, that's the only reason we used it. Our car ran 12 to 1 compression and without the additives we had serouis detonation on caution laps and actually broke the top lands off three pistons in three weeks, that's when we started researching additives and began using them. There were a couple of guys selling their own "home brew" additives at the track,all saying how great it was and how it was undetecable. I do not know if their claims were true,but they sold a lot of expensive stuff to a lot of racers.

As for my Mustang, I'm running 10.4 to 1 compression and really have no problems running 93 octane. Anything lower it has a "knock" at slow speeds. Also,in parades when the temp generally runs 200 or so for 30 to 45 minutes,it has a tendancy to "knock" when that hot. Once it is cooled back down to 180 everything is fine. It is only extra insurance in the Mustang, I can not say it improves performance at the drag strip because my times are not that consistant to tell any difference.

David